Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for imaging an ocular tear film, comprising: controlling a multi-wavelength light source to produce specularly reflected light from at least one first portion of a region of interest of an ocular tear film while the multi-wavelength light source obliquely illuminates at least one second portion of the region of interest of the ocular tear film adjacent to the at least one first portion; controlling the multi-wavelength light source to produce specularly reflected light from the at least one second portion of the region of interest of the ocular tear film while the multi-wavelength light source obliquely illuminates the at least one first portion of the region of interest of the ocular tear film adjacent to the at least one second portion; capturing, with an imaging device, at least one first image containing optical wave interference of specularly reflected light and a background signal from the at least one first portion of the region of interest of the ocular tear film; and capturing, with the imaging device, at least one second image containing the background signal from the at least one first portion of the region of interest of the ocular tear film.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising controlling the multi-wavelength light source to capture a first tiled pattern of the specularly reflected light from a plurality of the at least one first portions of the region of interest of the ocular tear film and the background signal from a plurality of the at least one second portions of the region of interest of the ocular tear film adjacent to the plurality of the at least one first portions in the at least one first image.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising controlling the multi-wavelength light source to capture a second tiled pattern of the specularly reflected light from the plurality of the at least one second portions of the region of interest of the ocular tear film and the background signal from the plurality of the at least one first portions of the region of interest of the ocular tear film adjacent to the plurality of the at least one second portions in the at least one second image.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein capturing the at least one second image containing the background signal from the region of interest of the ocular tear film further comprises: capturing the background signal from the at least one second portion of the region of interest in the first tiled pattern in the at least one first image; and capturing the background signal from the at least one first portion of the region of interest in the second tiled pattern in the at least one second image.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of the at least one first portions and the plurality of the at least one second portions are located adjacent to each other.
6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising combining the at least one first image and the at least one second image to form at least one resulting image in a tiled pattern containing the optical wave interference of the specularly reflected light from the region of interest of the ocular tear film with the background signal removed or reduced.
7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first tiled pattern is comprised from the group consisting of a teeth pattern and a plurality of concentric patterns.
8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of the at least one first portions and the plurality of the at least one second portions are comprised of equal or approximately equal areas.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical wave interference of the specularly reflected light from the ocular tear film is comprised of one or more optical wave interference signals.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the background signal includes at least one of stray light and ambient light.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the background signal includes diffusely reflected light resulting from illumination of the ocular tear film.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the background signal includes the diffusely reflected light from an iris of an eye.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising not capturing the specularly reflected light from the region of interest of the ocular tear film when capturing the background signal from the region of interest of the ocular tear film in the at least one second image.
14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sequentially controlling the imaging device to capture the optical wave interference of the specularly reflected light and the background signal in the at least one first image to provide a plurality of first images, and to capture the background signal in the at least one second image to provide a plurality of second images interleaved with the plurality of first images to provide a plurality of first and second image pairs.
15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising subtracting the plurality of second images from the plurality of first and second image pairs from corresponding first images from the plurality of first and second image pairs to generate a plurality of resulting images each containing the optical wave interference of the specularly reflected light from the region of interest of the ocular tear film with the background signal removed or reduced.
16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting a linear response on the imaging device.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising setting the linear response by adjusting a gamma correction of the imaging device.
18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising synchronizing illumination of the region of interest of the ocular tear film by the multi-wavelength light source with the at least one first image.
19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selectively controlling one or more light emissions devices within the multi-wavelength light source when illuminating the region of interest of the ocular tear film.
20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising positioning at least one of the multi-wavelength light source and the imaging device relevant to the ocular tear film prior to capturing the at least one first image and capturing the at least one second image.
21. The method of claim 20 , further comprising using a multi-wavelength Lambertian light source to uniformly or substantially uniformly illuminate the region of interest of the ocular tear film.
22. The method of claim 1 , further comprising combining the at least one first image and the at least one second image to form at least one resulting image.
23. The method of claim 22 , further comprising displaying at least one of the at least one first image, the at least one second image, or the at least one resulting image on a visual display.
24. The method of claim 23 , further comprising adjusting a linearity of the at least one resulting image before displaying the at least one resulting image on the visual display.
25. The method of claim 22 , further comprising displaying the at least one resulting image overlaid onto at least one of the at least one first image and the at least one second image on a visual display.
26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising adjusting either a contrast level, a saturation level, or both the contrast level and the saturation level of the at least one resulting image displayed on the visual display.
Unknown
March 1, 2022
Browse 5M+ US patents with plain-English claim translations and AI-generated analysis.